Forum - View topicANNCast - Kurt in Earnest
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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Question (or two) on the light novel thing:
#1, While the guest works with book-stores and I do not, I'm confused that there's some issue with book-stores over the covers for manga/anime related light-novels and said covers hurting sales. It is my understanding that (shameful as it is) books IN GENERAL sell terribly in America and by alienating the "obvious" audience (even if only slightly) I'd think you risk hurting sales more than whatever "help" you get aiming for more people that may not be buying at all. #2, Along the same note, I find it strange that they can't sell a "Spice & Wolf" novel (because it's too "manga-ish") but they CAN sell Maximum Ride and Twilight MANGA. I'm not a marketing guy and I'm not saying I can do better, but that just seems incongruous to me. #3, Finally, on the scanlation thing, first let me say that I am NOT saying it doesn't hurt sales. But this has always been something that I've wondered on the overall impact (all factors considered) for scanlations AND fansubs. I only bring this up at all because he said himself that their whole POINT of Yen Plus is to expose people to their material so they will buy the collected volumes. Aside from the fact that they make money on sales of Yen Plus and NOT on scanlations (which is NOT insignificant, I assume) I don't see how that GOAL is different from what scanlations SHOULD provide. If the GOAL is for Yen Plus to be highly profitable in and of itself then that's a different matter, but he said they were trying to use it to expose people to the manga so they'll buy the BOOKS. (on a somewhat related note, why AREN'T most of the "name" aggregators shut down? I realize soon as you do another one can take it's place, but it seems like it'd be easy to find/identify maybe the top 10 scanlation distributors, especially since (unlike anime torrent collectors) many scanlation sites have the chapters viewable online) |
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Kalessin
 Posts: 931 |
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I really like Lupin, but even so, it's not the kind of thing that I'm likely to watch every episode of. I always have a hard time finishing comedies - even those that I really like. They like the action, drama, suspense, etc. which make it so that you have to see the next episode to find out what happens. It's the achilles heal of every episodic show, and it's that much worse for comedies which tend to lack plots (though Lupin does better in that regard than many - at least within an episode). To really get me to keep watching, you need an overarching plot of some kind, and comedies almost always lack that. It's actually one of the strengths of anime that so much of it actually has a plot which continues from episode to episode rather than being episodic. But Lupin definitely doesn't fall in that category.
It's definitely a shame that Lupin hasn't done better in the US, but with how old it looks (even the new stuff tends to look older due to the art style), and how it's just another comedy (albeit a fairly good one), it just doesn't stand out enough, I guess. As for the Castle of Cagliostro, I find it funny that Zac thinks that that was a particularly good one, but I guess that comes from the fact that he doesn't care for Lupin in general. Cagliostro tends to very much be what Lupin isn't. It had some good stuff in it, but it was not a raucous, hilarious adventure like Lupin usually is. It was going more for the cute, fairy tale type of story which, while not entirely un-Lupin, really isn't where they typically take Lupin stories, and it's certainly not Lupin at his best. The Lupin special that I'd like to see come over here though is Lupin III vs Detective Conan. The fact that it covers two different franchises, both of which have been release by Funimation probably increases its chances. But the fact that neither of those franchises have been huge hits doesn't help. Here's to hoping though.
His name's always getting butchered one way or another. The Japanese do not pronounce it correctly (it is French after all), but that's not at all surprising. Added to that, you get at least a couple different pronunciations when it gets dubbed into English. So, his name gets pronounced differently left and right. However, the Japanese definitely pronounce it Lup-pahn as you say. Personally, I don't care too much. I can pronounce it correctly in French, but there's no way they're going to do that in either Japanese or English unless they've actually learned some French (I don't think that either language really has the correct vowel sound for the "in" at the end of Lupin). But if you want to stick to what the Japanese say, then it's Lup-pahn. Regardless, given that the Japanese don't even pronounce it correctly, and most people who aren't French won't either, I think that it's a bit silly to worry about it much. |
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littlegreenwolf
 Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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I work in a bookstore and nope, sales are still good. Books sell. Graphic novels not so much. I think in this instance you have to picture the market size. In one corner you have the people who order and buy manga. My store for instance has maybe four customers that buy manga, but they aren't enough for our store to set aside a section of the store and stock random manga titles, instead we just special order whatever they personally ask. Again, this is for this example, 4 people. Now on the other hand, the rest of the store's customers are pretty much this: Split up, 2/3rds of our customers are over the age of 25. These are the "serious business" customers that regularly come in and buy everything from romance novels to NYT best sellers, to the random non-fiction book. These people are not at all the targeted demographic for a YA Japanese light novel about a wolf spirit. Next we come to the final break down of my store's customes, the 3rd that are under 25. They're your kids-teens crowd, with a little mix from the age above, and they buy the crap out of fantasy novels. Particularly lately, Twilight, Percy Jackson, and House of Night. Lately this crowd is into the supernatural genre. Now if you're a bookseller, and you have a YA-ish book with a wolf spirit, would you want to try and sell to my four manga customers, or the good 3rd of my customers? And believe it or not, not everyone likes manga, nor the look of manga. Sure, keeping the manga cover gave readers the possibility of being exposed to it at some level, but the chance that a reader would be turned off by the manga cover was greater than a regular book cover. Yen Press did their research in selling the light novel. I hope it's working out for them, but either way I find it to be a much better approach than what Tokyopop has attempted.
They can do it because those are already established franchises with a huge fanbase who will buy just about anything with the name put on the cover. These manga will be appealing to the 3rd of my customers that regularly come in to this day and still buy the Twilight books and Maximum Ride, not the 4 manga customers. |
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sunflower
 Posts: 1080 |
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I haven't bought hardly any manga in the past year, fewer than 10 volumes. The year before that I bought hundreds of volumes. It has nothing to do with scanlations. It has to do with me not having a job and spending all my resources trying to get one. When people have more disposable income again, they'll go back to buying trivial things like manga.
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Richard J.
 Posts: 3367 Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis. |
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I think this is my favorite ANNCast ever. I'd like to request most sincerely that ya'll have Kurt Hassler back. he was both an amiable guest and did a great job of explaining Yen Press' decisions and he displayed a great personal affection that encourages interest. (And I am SO HAPPY to hear that they are already working on the third Spice and Wolf novel!)
I am so happy to hear that their light novels are doing well and I sincerely hope that they will start looking for series to rescue. Yen Press seems to be the only company that really seems to be succeeding with light novels and I think just by virtue of it being them, they could have better sales with some series than previous companies. This was a very informative interview and stunningly positive. Very enjoyable! Have Kurt back guys! Can't wait to see what they unveal at Sandiego Comic Con. |
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RedTail
 Posts: 176 |
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The Lupin episodes you guys watched were produced in 1980 at the very tail end of the second series and were Miyazaki's second foray into the franchise. Before this, he worked on the latter half on the first (green jacket) series in '72.
If you take the time to watch this very short, 23 episode series, you'll notice quite the dramatic shift in tone somewhere around its midpoint. Early episodes were kind of dark and more action-oriented. Later ones are of course lighter, but maybe not quite what you'd expect if you watched Miyazaki's other Lupin ventures. |
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silver_deeds
 Posts: 61 |
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I think you missed what Hassler was saying about Yen+. It's a marketing ploy to make readers aware and interested in other genres, styles, or stories they otherwise wouldn't know about to buy. It's a cross-pollination of different readers already following one story to then find something similar they might also like. Examples: FMA fans might pick up Yen+ because of Hero Tales. Maybe, they've never given korean manhwa a try but now they see, say, Jack Frost and liked it. More obviously, a fan of Max Ride who never really gave manga a shot can now sample a variety of tastes manga has to offer and a new fan is born. Hence another person buying from Yen Press. Gossip Girl fans that before only obsessed over the romance section can discover the world of shoujo. They know nothing about scans so Plus helps to create more customers that *will* buy from them. Even if you're a buyer that also reads scans regularly, you tend to stay with focused groups, series, or shoujo/shonen, whatever. Breaking that shell is a matter of convenience that doesn't happen that often online, yet Plus already has a decent selection laid out already for you. I read all sorts of stuff online and I still found something new from their 'zine I didn't know about before, That's what it's designed to do. It's intent is completely different from SJ or any scanlation group. Yen doesn't make much from Plus; It creates business so you buy their books later. See the difference? |
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cetriya
 Posts: 156 Location: NJ |
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for the whole lettering thing,
I like times new roman (well Georgia is better IMO) but it was how the lettering was treated. I look at that page (and hopefully the print version isnt as bad) and I cant read it. The background textures, the transparent word balloons, the tilted word balloon, the strokes all of that makes it hard to read what is a very legible font. I'm just worried that, new comers to comics/manga might be frustrated at reading the book and only really dedicated fans will read through. Others will just give up and may not try other comics for a long time. Wish the question as to why twilight is not serialized in Yen+ was brought up. I still think its a better series to put in the mag instead of GG. |
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connarii
Posts: 11 |
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Awesome to see another publisher in the game (coughVIZcough). Sounds like some great initiatives towards the mainstreaming of manga... although I am a manga purist, bringing in the Korean and OEL alongside, not only funding the company, but raising the profile of all the titles... brilliant. Heads-up to Kurt Hassler re: distribution - Chapters, the primary book retailer in Canada (Western Canada?), not to mention general comic shops etc. are not carrying your books... really, only Viz titles are getting proper exposure, and a handful of Tokyopop, and even on Amazon it's getting hard to get your titles. I've switched to ordering from RightStuf in order to get your titles on time and (and with great prices, I might add...).
Re: scanlating... I can certainly see how it must be hurting the industry, but it's gonna be a tough road to get away from it. I'm a committed fan, and I blow hundreds (probably more...) in a year on manga... but there's no way I can buy all the titles I follow... Frankly, unless manga were about $2-3/volume, it's impossible to buy all the manga I read... Also, paying for digital chapters online like NetComics isn't that appealing. Ideally, a subscription system where you pay a reasonable (think teen budgets) monthly/yearly fee to have access to a stable of titles could provide readers with inexpensive and legal access to a large variety of material could help stem the tide... and of course, there'd still be people, like myself, who would want the shiny 'real' copies of their top 25% of titles... |
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tasogarenootome
 Posts: 593 |
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The past two episodes have been particularly enjoyable. Thanks for the great guest interview and the work put into ANNCast.
It's kinda cool seeing how big Yen Press got in just a few short years. I remember at Otakon '07, some random girl came up to me and offered a Yen Press preview guide for free. I had never heard of them and when I thumbed through it, the titles (Alice on Deadlines, Black God, Spiral, and Zombie Loan) weren't my cup of tea, so I kinda dismissed Yen Press. I picked up a Yen+ last year and was surprised at how much variety they had and how enjoyable the anthology was. I'm happy for their success and hope it keeps up, they definitely have my money for several series. Within the Light is fantastic. They had it at NYCC a few years back and one of the men at the booth recommended it to me. I bought a volume, read it on the train, and came back the next day for another one. It's a good example of manga tackling a real-life dramatic topic that's universally relevant. I'll agree with what was said about the "collection" sites for scanlations being the major issue - if it was dispersed and hidden in some chat channel or unpopular personal website for "email me for Naruto chapters" instead of being so conveniently in one place, I think it wouldn't cause nearly the amount of damage it has. And Lupin, ah I did enjoy the goofy Adult Swim adaptation and hope they at least get the crossover special that aired last spring with Conan. |
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Gozar
 Posts: 63 Location: The Future |
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Just a Lupin fan strolling in here with a few corrections. Not sure if anyone mentioned these yet (Too lazy to check)...
-The 2 Miyazaki Episodes you watched were actually from the Second TV Series. Not the first. Which TV series you're watching is easily distinguishable by Lupin's jacket color. First series is Green. Second is Red. Third is Pink. -Miyazaki's involvement in Lupin is as follows. --Starting with Episode 7 he was the Episode Director for all but 2 of the First TV Series Episodes. ---He was the writer, director, and did the storyboards for the 2 Second TV Series Episodes you guys watched. Those 2 Episodes (145 & 155) was his only involvement with the Second TV Series. ----And of course he was director, character designer, & did the screenplay for "Castle of Cagliostro". -Fujiko LOOKED very Miyazaki like. But her portrayal but hardly Miyazaki like. It was still very Lupin-esque. She was held captive for most of the Episode. Needing Lupin to save her. It wasn't until the very end that she started kicking ass. -When listing the companies that got a hold of Lupin for English distribution. You left out FUNimation (They handled 8 TV Specials and 2 Theatrical Movies). |
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Ashen Phoenix
 Posts: 2908 |
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I can certainly understand and appreciate your argument with this. Personally, I feel like I kicked a puppy in its wobbly-eyed, cooing face almost every time I go to and read from a scanlation/pirate manga site, and I no longer harbor any delusions that what I'm doing is right, legal, or even truly justifiable. It's stealing, no matter how faceless the 'net has become. Rather than "justifications" I would say my reasons for continuing to "support them" - for lack of a better word - can be broken down into one of several things: 1) The majority of what I read pirated is series that aren't licensed. Depending on the likelihood of the individual title ever being picked up, I'll usually put an arbitrary "cut-off point" on how much I allow myself to read before turning away from the scans 'til the series is released legally. In this way, for example, if I hear about a handful of titles I've heard nothing about, I'll use scanlations to - and I know I'm going to be on the receiving end of a tub of fish guts for this - sample the first several (typically up to the first tankoban, at most) chapters of that series to see if I get a, "Hey, this is really something. Okay! Now I know I wanna buy/follow this series!" feel from it. 2) In the cases where I'll read scans of titles that are already licensed and being made available legitimately/in print, most of the time this is due to a combination of factors. a) My own simple impatience. I want to know what awaits my favorite characters and the release schedule for the next vol. is usually on a bi-monthly or even quarterly time table. b) I've self-imposed a restriction that follows, "All right. I'm reading/following/buying xxx series. I've read up to the latest vol. released and even though I know there're scans out there that go farther, I don't want to spoil the story by blowing thru it all at once, or having the difference in translations screw with my perception of what it's 'supposed' to say (i.e. 'no, that isn't what s/he said! It was worded differently!') so I'll wait." OR my last alternate explanation hinges on the artist in me, rather than the bibliophile. c) If I love the way a particular panel or scene is drawn, I'll go to scan sites and find the best quality shots I can, then save them either to the site's own bookmark system or to my hard drive for an artistic reference. If I can, I'll almost always edit out all of the page except what I want for reference material, including the dialogue, so that it won't hog memory or distract my eye when I go back to it. Over the last couple of years especially, I find myself relying on scanlations more and more for the aforementioned "c)" purpose than anything else. If there were a way I could obtain art references from the international comics I treasure without violating any laws - moral or otherwise - I would undeniably jump at the chance. For me, at least, that is a strong force behind my scanlation addiction. Again, I don't mean any of this to serve as justification for my actions. I just... I guess I could say I wanted to give my personal reasons for being among the countless otaku who pirate comics. I won't deny, either, that some moderate part of me hopes maybe some other fans can understand where I'm coming from with this. 
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loka
 Posts: 373 Location: Pittsburgh, PA |
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do not lump scanlations with "aggregation sites for NA published manga".
I've never seen a site host scanlations together with scans of NA published manga. I really doubt that they exist. And if they happen to exist, I doubt you'll find anyone who would side with them. I hope Yen Press keeps tabs on what's hot in scanlations, so that we can start owning all of the series that should've been licensed a while ago. p.s. thank you for rescuing Yostuba& |
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asimpson2006
 Posts: 3151 Location: USA |
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There are ones out there, I won't name them but they do exist. The one site that I do know of I don't agree with having scans of NA published manga, that is just taking money away from those companies and the artists. I don't have much from Yen Press (Most of my collection is TokyoPop and Viz, with some stuff from the company formerly known as ADV, and Bandai), but now I have an interesting in getting more from them. I need to finish up the rest of Yostuba& and the rest of Bamboo Blade. |
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DavidShallcross
 Posts: 1008 |
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If you want them as art references, you could probably make do with the original, untranslated, works. There are companies who will import for you. Since manga is generally cheaper in Japan than in the U.S., the importer's mark-up doesn't leave it much more expensive than U.S.-released manga. For example, I just ordered several volumes of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou from Sasuga Books, at about $12 a volume. (I may use on-line assistance at reading these, however.) But perhaps I have misinterpreted you, since I am not an artist, and a scanned version is more useful to you than a print version. |
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